taxonomites | 001 - [video] / arrival post

“Okay, I don't know what kind of a sick joke this is, but I can promise you right now that I ain't laughing.”

Thirty seconds ago, Gunn hadn't been in this – weird-ass, mechanical place. He had very much been stepping into the lobby of the Hyperion Hotel, sack of cheeseburgers in hand. The food was, of course, gone ('Fourteen dollars down the drain, dammit,' he thought briefly) and his stomach was oddly twisted, clenched and upset. He didn't like it.

He turned immediately in a full circle, hands curling into tight fists at his sides, looking for something to lunge at. “I swear, if this is some pasty-ass demon's idea of a joke...”

Dammit.

Fred was hungry. He just wanted to bring her the godforsaken cheeseburgers.

He was met with a stunning sort of silence as he turned that served to put him on edge more than at ease, and he lifted his fists to about chest-height, stepping to the side.

“Come on out, whoever – or whatever – you are--” he started, before his hip smacked against the pedestal that the tablet was sitting on, and Gunn nearly yelled out loud out of surprise, and then frustration. He dropped his fists and snatched the tablet up, hastily flipping it open and looking for a way to communicate with the device. “You better be some sort of fancy cellphone, and I better get some sort of reception in here,” he grumbled, tapping on the screen a little harshly and looking for some sort of number pad to dial out with. "Hello? Can anyone hear this thing?"

He was about ready to give up and throw the little device when his eyes cut up and he realized that a door had opened. 'Okay. Liking this place less and less as time goes on,' he thought, and instead of throwing the tablet, squeezed it a little too-tightly in his hands as he started out in the hallway. There was going to be hell to pay if his food was cold by the time he got home.

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Gunn never thought he'd be so glad to see a demon. "Yeah?" It's about now that Gunn really starts to hope that he's been hit by a car and is just hallucinating as he dies a slow, painful death. This is ridiculous. "Well, you know me: always ready for an apocalypse." He crooks his brows suddenly. "These aliens - they don't do any of that probing shit, do they? Because I am not down for any of that."

"I haven't seen the aliens, but Fred says they appeared once looking like hamsters, which sounds like something from a Saturday morning cartoon if you ask me," Lorne says, laughing a little. Then he looks more serious. "No probing, though they're definitely trying to mess with us. There've been all these ghosts floating around the city. They don't talk, just stand around and look creepy. The hamsters are up to something, and it's not gonna end well. I feel better knowing we've got you on our team, I can say that for sure."

"Hamsters and ghosts," Gunn echoes, shaking his head, as if this could someone help him comprehend what the hell was going on. "So - we just accept it and live here now? How long have you been here?"

Lorne doesn't mention why it is that he found Taxon so easy to accept: whatever its downsides, Cordy and Fred are alive here. Angel, Spike, Wesley, and Gunn are alive here, for that matter, when in his reality it's pretty likely they're dead. He just says, "No one says you have to accept it. That's your own choice, though acceptance'll make it easier on you. I've been here almost two months, and I'm wet behind the ears compared to some people. Cordy's been here for over a year now."

"Over a year!" Gunn exclaims before he can help himself, then shakes his head quickly from side to side. Well, no, that would make sense - especially her reaction to seeing him. "This is like a seriously jacked up joke."

"If it is a joke, none of us are laughing. Though maybe the joke isn't meant for us." Lorne sounds grim. It's not a nice thought, that this city might have been set up for someone else's entertainment. Watch the little rats run around their maze. It's like a real-life soap opera for the deranged.

001 - [video] / arrival post

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